Alice Cooper has released a new ten minute video that combines the songs, “Vengeance is Mine”, “(In Touch With)”, “Your Feminine Side”, and “Killed by Love”, from the new Alice Cooper CD, Along Came A Spider.

Quite honestly, after listening to the Judas Priest debacle called Nostradamus, I was not looking forward to hearing another concept album in 2008. Nonetheless, Alice Cooper has unleashed his latest batch of hard rock horror in the form of a concept album. The difference between this and Nostradamus is quite simple, this album has good songs, and a whole bunch of them to boot.

The songs on Along Came A Spider follow the story of the serial killer named Spider. I wont give up all of the secrets of the story of Spider, but this is pretty good song material. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I enjoyed an Alice Cooper CD this much.

The sounds on Along Came A Spider is a pretty good balance of 70’s era Alice Cooper mixed with 80’s and 90’s style rock. Kerri Kelli and Jason Hook handle the guitar work, and they do an excellent job. The production quality on this disc is fantastic. Alice also enlists the help of a couple of friends on this disc. Slash cuts loose playing guitar on the track “Vengeance is Mine“. Ozzy Osbourne helped Alice write the tune “Wake The Dead“. Ozzy handles the harmonica solo on this song. There is no mention of Ozzy singing on this album, but If you listen closely enough, you can hear what appears to be his background vocals on this tune.

I must admit that some of Alice Cooper’s releases have always been a bit hit or miss with me. I had low expectations for Along Came A Spider. With that being said, this disc is one of the nice surprises of 2008. This is one of my favorite discs so far this year. I had a lot of fun listening to this, and I think you will too.

For his new concept album, “Along Came a Spider,” Alice Cooper wanted to create a serial killer people could, well, like.

“It’s very easy to pull for a fictitious serial killer, a Hannibal Lecter or a Jason Voorhees,” says Cooper. The album, due July 29, introduces us to Spider, who wraps his victims in silk that matches their eye colors and cuts off one of their legs to create his own arachnoid appendage. “I don’t think anyone was ever cheering for Ted Bundy or Richard Speck or anything like that, but when it’s a fictitious serial killer, you can get behind him.

“I think (Spider)’s got a romantic sense. He’s got a sense of humor. I think in the end you kind of like him. You have somebody you could actually listen to and go, ‘I like this guy…’ ”

Cooper co-produced “Along Came a Spider” with Danny Saber and Greg Hampton, with the 11 tracks played by his touring band. Slash contributes guitar on “Vengeance is Mine,” while “Wake the Dead” is a co-write with Ozzy Osbourne. Listeners should brace for a plot twist that the singer calls “very Alice Cooper.”

Cooper, whose previous conceptual epics include “Welcome to My Nightmare,” “From the Inside” and “The Last Temptation,” is planning a full-fledged stage show to support “Along Came a Spider” but won’t have it on the road until 2009. “Right now I’ve got people that are drawing things up,” says Cooper, who’d also like to offer a visual treatment of the album with different horror directors creating videos for each song. “We’ve started thinking about, ‘What can we do to make this really interesting and what new things can we do with the stage?’ I gonna definitely create a new way for Alice to die, something nobody’s seen.

“A lot of clever minds out there are working on it,” he continues. “It’s weird to be working on a show for a year from now, but at the same time I can at least give myself a good head start.”

Cooper plans to play some of the new songs songs when his Psychodrama tour’s North American leg begins July 31 in Redmond, Ore.

According to Amazon.com, Alice Cooper’s new CD, Along Came A Spider will be released on July 29th. No song previews are available yet through Amazon. You can hear the song, Vengeance is Mine through the Alice Cooper myspace page.

The track listing is as follows:
1. Catch Me
2. Hungry
3. I Am The Spider
4. I Know Where You Live
5. (In Touch With) Your Feminine Side
6. Killed By Love
7. Salvation
8. The One That Got Away
9. Vengeance Is Mine
10. Wake The Dead
11. Wrapped In Silk